Thursday, January 24, 2008

Mumbai, Jan 24 (ANI): With a tag of over 100 million dollars Mumbai, Bangalare and Hyderabad today become the most expensive teams of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sponsored Indian Premier League.

The cricket body has announced the list of franchisee of owners of all eight cities.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited bagged Mumbai with the highest bid at 111.9 million dollars. Vijay Mallya’s UB group got franchise of Bangalore at 111.6 million dollars, and Deccan Chronicle got franchise of Hyderabad team at 107 million dollars.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid may have been axed from the One-day team for Australia, but there is some good news for them. In the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) which starts from April 18, BCCI has decided to pay them and some other senior cricketers 10-15% more money than the highest auctioned player of the Twenty20 event.

Sources said BCCI has shortlisted five cricketers — Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh — who will be called "icon players" and will be the highest paid players in the league. They will not be auctioned if they have a city team.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

MUMBAI, January 20: Selectors on Sunday sprang a surprise by leaving out former captains Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from India's 16-member squad for the tri-series in Australia, which also involves Sri Lanka.

Though Dravid was not part of the Indian One-day team that played against Pakistan, Ganguly was a regular in the side since his comeback from the wilderness.

Explaining reasons behind ignoring Ganguly and Dravid, Shah said,

The emphasis was on fielding abilities and they wanted a young fielding side for the series. That's why you see a lot of youngsters in the side.

A Board source said the selectors had an eye on the future and hence they decided to invest in youth, rather than sticking with the seniors.